CFC Youth for Christ

High School Based Program School Volunteers’ Training (SVT)

PRAYER AND SCRIPTURE

WORKSHOP 2 OF SV TRAINING

ANCHOR VERSE:

“Do not deceive yourselves by just listening to His word; instead, put it into practice.
Whoever listens to the word but does not put it into practice is like a man who looks in a mirror
and sees himself as he is. He takes a good look at himself and then goes away and at once
forgets what he looks like. But whoever looks closely into the perfect law that sets people free,
who keeps on paying attention to it and does not simply listen and then forget it, but puts it into
practice – that person will be blessed by God in what he does.” James 1:22-25

OBJECTIVES

a) To encourage the participants to live a life of prayer

b) To understand how to properly read the Word of God under the guidance of the Holy Spirit
c) To allow the participants to deepen their relationship with God through prayer

DYNAMICS

1) Worship
NOTE: Do not end the worship but proceed to the talk proper in order to continue the
prayerful posture. The worship leader may read the Gospel for the day within the
worship and start the talk from there.
2) Talk Proper
3) Workshop Proper
a) Instruct the participants to read the Gospel for the day on their own
b) Reflect on God’s message and instruct them to write it down on their prayer
journal
c) Give time during for them to share on their experience on how God spoke to
them.
CFC Youth for Christ
High School Based Program School Volunteers’ Training (SVT)

PRAYER AND SCRIPTURE

WORKSHOP 2 OF SV TRAINING

EXPANDED OUTLINE

INTRODUCTION
Prayer is an important tool in our Christian life. Henri Nouwen in one of his books said
that “A spiritual life without prayer is like a Gospel without Christ.” He added that “to pray means
to think and live in the presence of God.” Prayer directs our life not just to understanding the
things that’s happening toour lives but also makes us closer to the God. The bible can also lead
us to getting t know Christ more and how we can relate to His story. That’s why we include
scripture reading in our prayer life. The Bible is God’s concrete, truthful, and trustworthy Word
for us. It is through the Bible that we can have an understanding of what it means to love and be
loved by God. Called as the ‘Sacred Scripture’, this book “firmly, faithfully, and without error
teach [the] truth… written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, they have God as their
author” (Second Vatican Council, DV 11). This is God’s personal love letter to each and every
one of us, and it is His desire that we understand what He means when He tells us He loves us.
The Bible is God’s concrete message of love.
As youth of today, in the midst of all our busy schedules, school life, preparing for our
own families in the future, maintaining our relationships, how is our prayer life? Do we even
have a prayer life? Are we thinking and living in the presence of God?

II. What is prayer?

Prayer is commonly defined as our way of communicating with God. But more than that
prayer has a deeper and more personal meaning:
A. Prayer is our response to God’s call (CCC 2567)
a. After Adam and Eve believed the lie the serpent told them (The Fall), God look
for them. But the two hid from Him because they know that they are naked. They
know that they disobeyed God. (Genesis 3: 9-13). Just like Adam and Eve, God
in His love for us look for us and “called” us. And Prayer is our response to this
call
b. This “call” and “response” unfolds the whole history of salvation as a reciprocal
call between God and Man (CCC 2591):
i. God untiringly calls us to go back to Him.
ii. God desires to enter into a relationship with us and wants us to love Him
in return.
iii. He sent us His only Son who taught us how to pray just for us to answer
to His call.
B. Prayer is raising of one’s mind and heart to God (CCC 2590)
a. It is the opening of our mind and heart to God. Prayer involves the heart, the
emotions, the affective side of a person, and the will (Green, 2010).
b. Prayer is a personal encounter
i. More than just a response and opening our hearts and mind to God,
prayer is a personal encounter with God in love (Green, 2010).
ii. God untiringly calls each one of us to this mysterious encounter with
Himself (CCC2591). It gives us a share In God’s friendship, in His most
tender and infinite love (St. Guido).
CFC Youth for Christ
High School Based Program School Volunteers’ Training (SVT)

iii. Prayer allows us to meet our God, the Lord of encounter (T. Green).
iv. Through prayer we desire to meet God and be with God.
v. Prayer leads us into an intimate relationship with our God. He, who is all
beautiful and holy in Heaven and on Earth (St. Guido).

III. LISTEN TO GOD’S WORD

According to YOUCAT, ‘the right way to the read Sacred Scripture is to read it
prayerfully, in other words, with the help of the Holy Spirit, under whose influence it came into
being’. With this it is highly important that we do more than just reading it once, or reading it
intellectually. The Bible is to be read with complete faith and trust in God. We should read the
Bible by:

a) Looking Intently – …the man who looks intently into the perfect law…”
The Bible must first be read according to truth. It must be important that as we read His
word, we are to take into consideration the context in which it is happening, and what has
happened before or after that particular Bible passage. It is important to read it through:

LOGOS – “the truth” and RHEMA – “personal word”

b) Keep onlooking Intently – “…and continues to do so…”
Reading it once may not necessarily give us a clear idea of what God is trying to convey.
We must always remember that God is always bigger than our understanding. It is important
that we clear our minds of all our worries, concerns, and anything that is not off God, in order to
fully get clarity on His message. Pray for God’s grace to give you the Holy Spirit in order to help
you understand His message. Do not be impatient and wait for God to meet you where you are.

c) Remember what you looked at – “…not forgetting what he has heard…”

With God’s grace, God’s message will slowly surface through what you are reading. Do
not expect anything too profound or perfectly associated with your personal experiences. Give
God the free reign to simply give you His message. Write it down on your personal journal and
savor this message throughout the day. Ask for God’s grace to reveal to you what His message
means.

Guidelines in Reading the Bible:

1) Know “Where You Are” before you read the Bible. Know the questions of your heart and
lay it out before the Lord.
2) Always read the Bible with this question at the bottom of your heart: “What is God
telling me today?”
3) Dirty your Bible: Be free to underline, put question marks, exclamation points, and actual
phrases in the Bible.
4) Write a prayer to the Lord after reading the Bible. Write comments, reflections, and
questions – especially God’s Rhema for the day.
5) If there is a specific verse that has “leapt the pages”, see if the Lord wants you to
memorize that particular verse. Write it on a small card and bring it with you.

Live God’s word

James 1:22 “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says!”
2 Corinthians 3:18 “All of us, gazing with unveiled face on the glory of the Lord, are being
transformed into the same image from glory to glory, as from the Lord who is the Spirit”